Summary: In this blog, we’ll share different methods to address the ‘external hard drive not showing up on Mac’ issue on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina and other lower versions. Download the free-to-try Mac data recovery software to recover your lost data from external hard drive on Mac.
“Hi friends, when I connected my 2 TB Seagate external hard drive after a long time on my MacBook Air (running on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina), the drive did not show up in the Desktop or Finder sidebar. This drive has all my important digital memories. Could anyone please help me out to recover my data from the drive? Thanks.”
When you connect an external hard drive to your Mac running on macOS Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina, the storage drive may not show up on Desktop, Finder, or even on the Disk Utility app due to several reasons.
Contents
The next sections describe multiple troubleshooting methods to fix the ‘external drive not showing up on Mac’ issue on macOS.
Your external hard drive may not be connected properly to the USB port present on your MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac mini. Try the following steps:
In macOS Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina, you need to enable the visibility of external disks. For setting your preferences, do the following:
Try updating your macOS Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina to fix subtle issues of external hard drive connectivity. But before that, back up your Macintosh HD by using Time Machine to avoid any data loss. Ensure your Time Machine drive is connected to your Mac. Go to Time Machine > Back Up Now. Once the backup is taken, perform the following steps to update your macOS.
When your Mac is not recognizing the external hard drive, use Disk Utility to mount and repair the unrecognized external drive. The steps are as follows:
When Disk Utility can’t repair your external hard drive, use your Terminal application available in macOS to mount and repair the affected drive. The steps are as follows:
In case the external drive’s data is not accessible due to file system corruption, you can still recover the data by using a data recovery software for Mac.
After recovering the inaccessible data, erase the drive by using Disk Utility to fix any logical issues. Finally, restore the recovered data to the external hard drive.
If your external hard drive is not visible in Disk Utility even if you have chosen the Show All Devices option in the View tab, then the drive may have undergone physical damage. You need to replace the inoperative drive with a new one.
Note: To recover data from a dead hard drive, get in touch with a data recovery service provider.
Learn More: Worst Mac Hard Drive Problems And Solutions
The blog highlighted common reasons for troubleshooting strategies to resolve the ‘external hard drive not showing up on Mac’ issue. To perform any critical troubleshooting process, back up your drive. In case of data loss, do not lose hope. Recover your lost data by using a Stellar Data Recovery Professional for macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, or earlier. The Mac data recovery software supports a variety of storage devices including external hard drives formatted with APFS, HFS+, HFS, NTFS, FAT, and ex-FAT file systems. The software is available for a free trial.
Vishal is a data recovery expert @Stellar. He addresses data loss scenarios on a Mac. He intends to help people solve their macOS problems. Besides, Vishal prefers to read about astronomy and autobiography, and his favorite is Steve Jobs - The man who thought different written by Karen Bluementhal.
I have a Toshiba 2 TB external hard drive which I was earlier using on Windows system and the drive also having my Windows data backup. However, now when I’m connecting the same to my mac system, it is not showing up! Will surely give a try to above methods & see if that will be of any help!!!
Hi Benson,
Sure, you can try the above methods however, as you were using the drive earlier on Windows OS then you might need to check the file system of the storage drive. If the drive is NTFS, it won’t be accessed on macOS. If it needs to be operated on both Windows & macOS, it needs to be FAT or ExFAT.
Hope this information will be helpful!
I recovered data with the help of your Stellar data recovery professional for mac software from my SanDisk external hard drive that was not showing up in my MBP. However, some image files are corrupted but that was not so important for me so I avoid. But, in case if I required those images will your software help to fix the corruption on recovered image files???
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Sam. Stellar Data Recovery Premium for Mac allows user to repair their corrupt photo or video files.
I have Kingston USB pen drive that is not showing up on my mac. Are the methods shared above can be applied on that as well?
Hi Aaron,
Yes, the Stellar data recovery tool helps users to retrieve data from USB storage drives!
Hi, None of the above steps worked for me. I connected my external drive with a Windows computer and it asked me to scan the disk. After scan, the external drive was accessible in Windows. Then I connected it with Mac and it worked. I used to hate Windows but in this situation, it rescued me while mac was a total failure.
Hi Rana, if all the steps did not work in your case then you should put your query on mac forum community. They will assist you in a better way in deep detail. Thanks
It helps lot. Thank you Sir
Hello,
This helped me locate it! Thank you so much!
Can the non-accessibility of external HDD is due to faulty cables?
Hello Ellen,
Very high chance of this kind of problem. Kindly replace and check. Other than that please also check your connecting ports.
Hey Author,
What is the difference between you Stellar Data Recovery Mac Professional & Premium version?
Hello Darren,
Stellar Data Recovery Mac Professional is a reliable data recovery tool which recovers all lost/deleted files from Mac OS.
On the other end, the Premium version is a more advanced version combining Data Recovery Mac software with repairing of photos & videos files.